In October, the WiTWA team brought our techtrails STEM & Future Skills Incursion to Ocean Reef SHS (www.oceanreef.wa.edu.au), where we presented to 150+ year 9 students from Ocean Reef SHS and Belridge Secondary College. For this incursion we had another fantastic and inspirational group of STEM professionals, industry experts and entrepreneurs meet the students and share their stories and experiences. Thank you to all who made this event possible, and especially to our generous group of STEM professionals for making themselves available and agreeing to share their personal techtrail stories to inspire the next generation:

Lakshini Weerasekera, Harry Perkin Institute for Medical Research

Alex Hickling, WA Museum

Nikki Foster & Para O'Kelly, Thoughtworks

Hilary Goh, Mine Vision Systems

Kirsten Flint, Scitech

Jessica Kemp, Shell Australia

Ellie Sansom, Desert Fireball Network

Trevor Dunstan, Kinetic IT

The students from both schools were an absolutely pleasure to meet and all staff involved made the occasion a seamless and fun day. Our special thanks to Karon Brooks, Principal of Ocean Reef SHS, Maggie Glover, VET and Workplace Learning Coordinator Ocean Reef SHS, Warren Smith, Deputy Principal Ocean Reef SHS, as well as John Burke, Principal Belridge Secondary College and Liz Cassidy, Technology and Enterprise, Belridge Secondary College.

We would also like to acknowledge the support provided by the Australian Government enabling us to deliver techtrails throughout 2017.

techtrails

techtrails is an initiative of Women in Technology (WA) (www.witwa.org.au). techtrails aims to improve gender diversity in science, technology, engineering and maths though events at schools. The school events have speakers from industry who share their stories and provide inspiration to the students.

Get involved!

To find out more about the techtrails program and how you could be part of the incursion either as a presenter or volunteer, please contact either: